~ from my home to yours, living the Working Pantry lifestyle ~ surviving today's economy ~ a can-do spirit and attitude ~

Friday, July 1, 2022

Goals for July, 2022

 

We learned yesterday that it will be July 19th before our phone and internet are restored!  When the phone company came out and made the repairs to the cut lines, for some reason they didn't make it to our house.  

Consequently, everyone had their phone and internet restored the day after the lines were cut except us!  

We've been around and around with the phone company to no avail!  However, we figured out today that we can use our phones as a wi-fi hotspot and ta-da ... here I am!!!

Since this is the first day of July, I wanted to kick it off with sharing 3 goals that I set for the month ...

(Updates will be in red, so check back often to see how I'm doing throughout the month!)

Goal #1:  Christmas in July.  I love everything about Christmas and this year decided to do a Christmas in July challenge!  (1) make a Santa Hat quilt (2) inventory gifts in my gift pantry and (3) complete 1 Christmas cross-stitch mini pillow.  I'm going to strive to do something "Christmasy" every day!  Today I pinned together pieces of the Santa Hat quilt to stitch tomorrow.  I got the whole quilt top stitched up.  Finished size 46 1/2 x 54 1/2.

I worked on my Christmas cross-stitch mini pillow but didn't complete it nor did I get my gift pantry inventoried!   Hey, one (Santa Hat quilt top) out of three beats zero out of three!

Goal # 2:  Health.   The month of June will go down in history as a bad month health wise for me.  It started with covid followed by a pretty significant fall.  Between both of them, my fitness journey suffered so I'm going to work hard and be very intentional in July to get back to where I was.  (1) walk 260,000 steps (that's a little less than 10,000 steps per day) (2) lose 5 pounds.

7/13:  I'm up to having completed 102,000 steps

7/19:  I'm up to 142,000 steps

7/24:  I'm up to 193,000 steps

7/29:  I'm up to 213,000 steps

7/31:  I made it to 226,000 steps for the month.  I didn't reach my goal but considering the health challenges I encountered again this month; I'm completely satisfied with getting as close to my goal as I did!

How did I do with my other goal of losing 5 pounds?  Again, I didn't reach it, but did lose 2.4 pounds.  I'll take it!

Goal #3:  Pantry.  Add 100 shelf stable items to my pantry (Today, I canned 5 quarts of beets and 2 quarts of green beans.  That gives me 7 of the 100 items!)

7/2:  I canned 7 jars of beets; one didn't seal so we ate it at a meal.  That left 6 jars to add to my pantry which brings the number of shelf stable items to 13.

7/13:  I diced and dehydrated 2 jars of potatoes and 31 jars of tomatoes bringing the total to 46 shelf stable items.

7/19:  I canned 14 quarts of tomato juice and 7 quarts of Boston Butt meat.  These give me a new total of 67 shelf stable items towards my goal of 100 for the month.

7/21:  I canned 8 jars of carrots.  This brings the total to 75 shelf stable items towards my goal of 100 for the month.  Only 25 more to go!!!

7/22:  I strained up 2 jars of shelf stable cider fire that I've had in the works for a month or so.  This brings the total to 77 shelf stable items towards my goal of 100 for the month.  Only 23 more to go!

7/26:  We purchased 7 cans of Dinty Moore beef stew to add to our pantry.  Hubby really likes this beef stew, not as good as what we make at home, but it works great as a back-up! This brings the total to 84 shelf stable items with 16 more to go!

7/28:  I canned 5 quarts of tomato juice.  This brings the total to 89 shelf stable items leaving 11 more to go!

7/29:  I canned 12 jars of vegetable soup.  That makes 101 shelf stable items for the month of July!!!    I met the goal ... Yeah!!!!

That's it for this post, are you setting any goals for July?

Until the next post,

patsi 

She looketh well to the ways of her household … Proverbs 31:27

A Working Pantry is a way of life, a lifestyle if you will!

My pantry is intentional, purposeful, simple, practical, frugal and what works for my family.  It’s the food items and household supplies that keep my household running smoothly ready and available when they are needed.  It’s my contribution to our family’s economy and my work-from-home ‘job.'

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8 comments:

  1. I’m trying very hard to stick to my monthly budget that I set in January, before inflation took over. Gas and groceries have been hard to contain. With that said, July is a big month for me. My birthday is this month (and it’s a big one this year) and we have the 4th of July celebration, with a get together at my house, fireworks are shot off over the lake across the street for perfect viewing. Guests will bring a dish to pass, but it budget for what I will provide is significant. So, my big goal for July is to only purchase perishables for the remainder of the month and rely on my pantry, freezer, and deck garden. I’ll continue to work on bread baking skills, and experiment with proofing dough using my bread machine, for making rolls and buns.

    I’ll continue to harvest and dry herbs from my deck planters. Then later this month, I’ll begin putting up produce, as it comes to market. I’ll work to tie produce purchases in with visits to my Mom in SW Michigan, where I can get better quality fruit and vegetables in quantity at better prices. Cherries, raspberries, and blueberries are next, with peaches peppers, beans, and tomatoes toward the end of July.

    On the crafts front, I'd like to resurrect my crochet skills from back in my teens. If I get near a store that has supplies, I plan to go in and see what they have that sparks some interest. (Or, maybe I'll plan a trip and take my sewing machine in for a tune-up, too. It's been sitting in a box for way too long!)

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    1. Lori, I love your goals and happy birthday for your 'big one' birthday! I hope yours is better than mine. I was exposed to 'it' on my 'big one' birthday and 3 days later I was sick, sick, sick!

      July is a big harvest and preservation month for us and it sounds like it's going to be for you as well.

      Alot of us are struggling with maintaining our grocery and fuel budgets! These are definitely times when creativity and ingenuity are called for!

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  2. That is absolutely crazy that they will not come out and get you going again! Customer service is not what it used to be.

    No goals here as we have to take each day as it comes. We had a real goal to grow food this summer but we cannot seem to keep the squirrels out of our container garden. They got every tomato this week and now have begun on the peppers. It is not a good use of our time and resources to keep working on this to feed them and not us. They also stripped the plum tree bare week before last.

    I have made progress on holiday foods. Food Lion has turkey breasts for 1.29 a pound this weekend so we put one in the freezer just in case for Thanksgiving. We have two hams. Other foods have been added as they have been found on sale, etc. We were able to get ten food safe buckets from Krispy Kreme this week. We have been checking for them for several weeks. They are nasty and greasy when we get them but we have found that we can wash them in the dishwasher which gets them perfectly clean for little effort.

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    1. Lana, if the phone company hadn't come out and repaired the other houses on our road we could have understood, but they just didn't follow through on checking everyone that lives on our road.

      Those squirrels can be a real problem! I would rethink the container garden too in your circumstances. It's wise and prudent to know when to cut our loses.

      We continue to work on our holiday foods too. It just makes sense with everything so crazy.

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  3. I love your realistic and helpful goals. I tend to overdo the list and underachieve so I'll take some inspiration from you to be more realistic. Also, your beautiful planner adds inspiration.

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    1. Anonymous, I'm guilty of overdoing my goals list a lot of the time too, but for this month I made it a point to keep it realistic and prudent! Hopefully, this will be the new normal for my goal setting. I'd much rather complete a few goals than, because of unrealistic goals, come away from the month feeling like I didn't accomplish anything.

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  4. Welcome Back!

    Coleen

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    1. Coleen, thank you! It's good to be back!

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